The first few centuries of the Common Era were turbulent times for the Jewish people. The First Jewish Revolt against Rome (66–73 CE) saw the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in 70 CE. The Bar Kokhba Revolt (132–135 CE) ended with massive casualties and the displacement of Jews from Judaea. Amid this upheaval, some Jewish intellectuals fled north to Galilee and formed study circles in cities such as Tiberias, Lydda, and Sepphoris. These men included scribes, priests, Pharisees, and others who shared a commitment to Torah, the body of Jewish ancestral texts. We call this group the rabbis, a Hebrew word that means “my masters” or “my teachers.”
What did the rabbis teach?
The rabbis considered themselves authorized by God to expand, adapt, and elaborate upon the Torah. Because the temple had been destroyed, Jews could no longer observe many of the temple-related laws, sacrificial system, and pilgrimage festivals. In response, the rabbis created alternative ways to fulfill these commandments. Prayer, Torah study, and charity could offer a meaningful substitute to temple pilgrimage. Home-centered and timebound rituals could infuse Jewish meaning into everyday spaces.
In the process, the rabbis expanded the notion of Torah to include both the canonical books of the Bible (written Torah) and their own teachings (oral Torah). They viewed the process of expanding the meaning of Torah as the most supreme religious act. They developed a distinctive set of interpretive methods to guide their thinking. One method was midrash, a detailed and inventive commentary on the biblical text. The rabbis also engaged in technical legal reasoning and storytelling.
The rabbis set themselves up as legal and ritual experts. They modeled how to pray, how to tithe, and how to raise Jewish families. Though not all Jews sought rabbinic advice, neighbors and friends soon sought to copy their local rabbis. Great rabbinic teachers attracted students and helped spread the value of rabbinic expertise. Over time, study houses (batei midrash) formed.
What did the rabbis write?
By the end of the second century, the earliest rabbis, or tannaim “the reciters”(first–third centuries), had produced a body of literature unlike any contemporaneous writing and without precedent in earlier Jewish literary texts. The Mishnah is an anthology of tannaitic teachings compiled around 200 CE. The Mishnah envisions a Jewishness guided by the rabbinic perception of Jewish laws and traditions; the totality of this teaching is called halakah. Observance of halakah meant modeling behavior around a set of precepts that the rabbis argued expanded the true meaning of mitzvot (biblical commandments).
Later generations of rabbis, the amoraim “the speakers” (fourth–sixth centuries), used the Mishnah as the basis for their own teachings. These teachings were later collected in the Palestinian Talmud in the fifth century and the Babylonian Talmud in the sixth century. Additional rabbinic literature includes the halakic teaching of distinct rabbinic schools as well as midrashic collections based on books of the Hebrew Bible.
The sum of these laws and practices is what we call Rabbinic Judaism. Gradually more Jews began to align themselves with rabbinic Judaism until it became the normative basis of Judaism to this today.
Bibliography
- Hayes, Christine. The Emergence of Judaism: Classical Traditions in Contemporary Perspective. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2010.
- Schwartz, Seth. The Ancient Jews from Alexander to Muhammad: Key Themes in Ancient History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
- Satlow, Michael. Creating Judaism: History, Tradition, Practice. New York: Columbia University Press, 2006.
